How to Make a Math Board Game with Your Children

Here's your nightly math! Just 5 quick minutes of number fun for kids and parents at home. Read a cool fun fact, followed by math riddles at different levels so everyone can jump in. Your kids will love you for it.

How to Make a Math Board Game with Your Children

You don’t have to spend money to create a fun math board game for your children. With a few basic materials, you can make something at home. Depending on your children’s ages and artistic interests, they can even help you develop the best math game ever.

Be creative with your board game, making fun starting and ending points. For example, the start space on your game could be your home, and the end point (winner’s space) could be grandma’s house, the ice cream shop, an amusement park, or whatever you and your child can dream up. Give the game a name that reflects the design (and math) theme.

Create blocks that lead from the start space to the winner’s spot. Use a ruler to make each of the spaces the same size, say two-inch squares, so the game looks nice and neat. However, if it’s not perfect, don’t sweat it. Your game will still be fun and your homemade board may become a family treasure. You can put the spaces all around the perimeter of the poster board like in Monopoly or sort of scroll them toward the finish line as in Candy Land.

Write a math challenge, such as add 2 plus 2 or multiply 8 times 2, in each box. Little ones might do better with basic counting exercises or incorporating movement into the challenges. For example, clap three times or jump up five times. Illustrate the game board with colorful drawings or stickers or glue on goofy images from old magazines.

Take care to create a game board that aligns with your child’s attention span in addition to her growing math skills.

Play and Learn

To play, each player selects a playing piece as her game piece. Each player rolls the dice on her turn with the youngest player rolling first. The player adds the numbers on the dice moving her piece a corresponding number of spaces ahead on the board.

When a player lands on a space, she must solve the math challenge in order to stay there. This is where the manipulatives may come in handy. Children can use them to perform the required math operation and solve the problem at hand. If a player does not solve the question correctly, she must return to the previous space. That player will roll the dice again on his or her next turn.

Liven It Up

You can make a non-math landing space here and there for a bit of comic relief. For example, the space could require the player to tell a joke, do a little dance, sing a song, or make a funny face. You might also include random spaces that tell the player to go backwards or jump ahead a space or two just to keep things lively.

Playing to Win

The first player to reach the final space wins the game, but we know that all players win because they’re developing math skills. If you play this game with your children (as opposed to observing them at play), adapt it to include higher level challenges. For example, you might change addition problems to multiplication or division. If you get “stuck” on your challenge, ask your kids to help you reason it through.

Last, but not least, remember that board games are supposed to be fun! Be sure to engage in this type of play when you are feeling relaxed and open to low-key fun.

About the Author

Kim Moldofsky is a mom of teen boys in the Chicago area. She blogs at TheMakerMom.com and hosts a the popular monthly #STEMchat on Twitter where parents and educators share ideas and resources to raise STEM-loving kids.